Chapter 3 – Delighted. Hope you like it. Thankyou so much for the reviews, keep going in that vein!

Rose was furious. She angrily strode to the stables. Miko and Lily followed behind her. She stood in the doorway and looked around. After a while Lily got bored.

"Are you going to do anything?"

Rose didn't reply. The stables had evidently once held rows of proud horses, with all the stalls occupied, but now there were only four with horses in. The nearest was a palomino, staring into space. Rose went up to it.

"That's mother's horse. She's lovely. We call her Dreamer."

Rose looked at the others. There was a proud, deep chested bay, standing looking over his door chewing hay.

"That's Miko's horse."

Lily whispered in her ear.

"Yes, he is. I call him Jupiter, because he's so strong."

Third was a dapple-grey, with powerful back legs, built for jumping. She was snuffling inquisitively at the door of her stall.

"And she's mine. She's called Persia."

Rose smiled. It was the kind of name she would have chosen. She decided she was going to like Lily. She was impressed with what she saw. All the horses were evidently well cared for. And that, for Rose, signified how kind and caring a person really was.

"Can you ride, Princess?"

"Well enough, sir, but I would not dream of riding any of these horses. They are yours and they love you greatly. I could not ride them."

"Well, we have a fourth. We found him only a few days ago. We brought him in – he was badly beaten up, wasn't he, Miko?"

"Yes."

"He won't let anyone near, but he's obviously a tamed horse – he had a bridle on and his coat was shining, even filthy as it was."

Rose looked at the fourth and last occupied box. There was no curious head poking over the top. All she could hear was a pounding and sound of splintering wood. She walked up to it and peeked over the top of the door. Inside a magnificent Dun stallion was pounding the walls with its front feet. The wooden walls looked about ready to give up. Rose looked closely. It reminded her of a horse she had known. It wasn't her old horse – she had been killed when they were ambushed. Then she knew.

"Does he have a name?"

"No, we couldn't find one that was right for it."

"It's a he."

"Very good, princess, I'm impressed."

Rose looked at the stallion again. She unlatched the door and went inside. Lily swore and went to get her, but Miko grabbed the back of her shirt.

"Don't sister, she knows that horse. Can't you see it in her eyes – eye?"

As Rose pushed open the door, the horse dropped down onto all fours. He eyed her warily and Rose stared at him. He was filthy, covered in scars, and in his eyes Rose could see weariness and despair. She walked up to him, crooning softly.

"Now, now, good boy. It's me, it's Rose. Don't you recognise me? Dakarai?"

"What did you call him?"

Rose jumped, she hadn't heard Miko come up behind her. Then she found her voice, although it only came out as a miserable whisper.

"Dakarai. I called him Dakarai. It was his name when my ……..friend, Tom, rode him. It means delighted, and that he was, before Tom was killed. Now he looks as though he has lost all hope. I know how he feels."

The great, dun horse changed as he heard his name and that of his master. He seemed to register Rose for the first time. He plodded up to her, slowly. Rose lifted his drooping muzzle in her hands and looked into his liquid brown eyes.

"Poor baby."

She stroked his nose and white stripe, then lifted his head onto her shoulder and hugged his neck tight.

When she stepped back, she had tears in her eye. She brushed them away angrily, and turned around. She saw Miko still standing there, although he did look awkward.

"I need a bucket of water, and some brushes, and some soothing ointment if you have it, for his wounds. I'm going to make him delighted once more."

Rose worked for over three hours when Miko returned, and by the time she was finished Dakarai looked proud again. She stroked his neck hugged him. Clean and with dressings on the raw wounds on his back, he seemed to have changed. The hopelessness was gone, and he looked ready for anything. He came up and nudged Rose as she put the brushes in the bucket. She turned around and ruffled his mane, then turned and left. Dakarai poked his head out of the door. The other horses looked at him wonderingly. As soon as Rose stepped over the threshold into the bright sunshine Dakarai began to pound at his door furiously, whinnying the whole time.

"I think you're sleeping in here tonight, princess."

Rose ignored him and about turned. The stallion stopped as soon as she came near. She opened his door and, to Mikos utter amazement, he followed her without trying to run off. Rose reached him soon enough, and Dakarai stood quietly behind her. Miko was almost speechless. But not quite.

"How do you get him to do that?"

"I'm all he's got left to trust."

The next chapter will be a little less horse-based, I promise, but I couldn't think of another way to start unravelling Rose's past.